WTAMU Student Portfolio Managers Announce 2017 Stock Picks

CANYON, Texas—The Student-Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) portfolio managers at West Texas A&M University presented their purchase decisions at the 2017 College of Business Student Symposium on May 2. The stocks selected as possible buy opportunities are:

Owing to a combination of performance and donations, the SMIF current market value is more than $1,186,265. During the prior year, the equity portion of the SMIF increased in line with the S&P 500 index. With a beta close to one, the SMIF performed slightly better than the market for the last five years. The fund is a blend with about 30 percent in growth, 35 percent in value and 35 percent in core. The majority is in large-cap stocks, with about 20 percent in large-cap growth, 20 percent-25 percent in large-cap value, and 20 percent-25 percent in large-cap core. The largest sector weights are information technology (18 percent), financials (14 percent), consumer staples (12 percent), consumer cyclical (11 percent) and industrials (11 percent).

Through the SMIF, finance majors at WTAMU explore applied investing. Students manage a portfolio of funds and decide on stocks to purchase and sell with a goal of long-term growth. They learn investment fundamentals, valuation techniques and technical analysis. All finance majors explore one or more investment opportunities, which are forwarded to the student portfolio managers for consideration. Portfolio managers attempt to meet the dual objectives of increasing the long-run value of the portfolio combined with the short-run objective of providing student scholarships.